03 Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
by Scopet
Summary: In a broken down bus on a lonely planet called Midnight. Jeffrey Cane awakens to his past memories as Merlin. On the way back to civilization. Merlin & the Doctor have a talk. It's not the first time they've met. Merlin knows the Doctor's real name.
1. Prologue 00

**SCOP'S NOTES:**

**Okay, so I finally gave in. I've been trying to write the next chapter of "The Consequences of a Bright Night", and after the third re-write of the chapter, I made the mistake of watching the Doctor Who episode "Midnight". This story plopped itself in my brain and wouldn't go away. I think it was a rebellion to the serious tone "Bright" was taking. **

**Being a long time Doctor Who fan and an HUGE Merlin fan, this story was inevitable, but when this particular twist on things popped in my mind, the story wouldn't let go. Other's in this vein may follow.  
**

**So, here it is, one of many Merlin / Doctor Who crossovers. **

**With any luck, I'm going to write a sequel to this using the same version of the characters at Hogwarts, but first things first...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or Doctor Who. Thank you much to those that do, though :)  
**

**.**

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

.

**Once Upon a Midnight Dreary**

**Prologue**

There were consequences to immortality, the kind Merlin had chosen for him and his friends anyway. True immortality of the body was impossible. Body's decayed, so unless one was prepared to steal someone elses, the only option left was to bind the memories of past lifetimes with your future. Souls reincarnated, they were naturally immortal anyway, but the memories usually didn't survive, they were what died when one passed through the vale separating the land of the living from the land of the dead. Unless, of course, one had mastered he power of Life and Death.

Arthur's body lay across the dais in the main courtyard on the Isle of the Blessed, all but dead from his final battle as King of Camelot. Merlin had slowed the passage of time round Arthur soon after the fatal blow was delivered, unable to stop the act itself. But Time was still ticking for the Once and Future King. Even in his slowed state, he had continued to ebb closer to death as the trio ushered Arthur away from the battlefield and the dead friends who had fallen there. The concentration of Power the Isle, so close to the thinnest part of the Vale, was the only thing keeping Arthur alive.

"I'm sorry," Morgana said. "I didn't realize-" The Vision had sapped the joy of victory from her the moment the sword entered Arthur's body. The moment she had waited for so long as youth faded to years spent seeking Camelot's demise. Morgause had led her to believe she was the one to lead Albion to it's glory, but the Vision told her otherwise. Albion laid waste, turned to ash after centuries of warfare, it's children's eyes glowing cinders of hate which dwarfed anything Morgana had felt, even for Uthur. _"Is this really what you wanted?"_ Merlin had asked her at the time. No, it wasn't what she had wanted as all.

"Be sorry later!" Merlin snapped at her. "We only have one chance at this." To say he wasn't happy with Morgana at the moment was an understatement, but he had seen the same vision she had. He needed to borrow her power if he was going to pull this off. For better or worse, she was going to travel with them into the future, their destinies doomed to be entwined as long as life breathed in the universe. She could seek redemption or revenge all she wanted in that future. All that mattered now was Now.

The Caleich approached the small group. The trio and the dying man were all well past their youth, their faces showing the wrinkles and grey of a life well lived, full of grief as well as happiness. "Are you sure this is what you want?" she asked. "The Forgetting is a blessing, that you may start anew in your new lives, making different choices with no scars to bear from the past. Are you _sure_ this is what you want?"

"Yes," Merlin spoke first, and without hesitation.

"Yes," Morgana said. Not as quickly, but just a confident in her decision.

"Yes," Gwen said. "And as wife, I speak for my husband as well."

Under the full Midnight moon, the Caleich nodded. She cast her eyes upwards to the face of the creature who towered above them. "And you, you who are old enough and wise enough to know better. Are you sure as well?"

"Yes," Killgarah said. "It is the only choice possible now."

"Very well," the Caleich said. "But know that this decision does not come without consequences. With the wisdom of your memories comes responsibilities. Your destinies will be tied by the Old Magic to the protection of the land and it's descendants throughout time."

"So what else is new," all three of the humans muttered at the same time.

"It is the only way to mitigate the damage done by our failure." Merlin said. "There will still be war and other troubles in the future that is to be. But there will also be compassion and their will also be hope. Through it all, the memory and the striving for the ideals of Albion will continue, until the time is ripe again for it's return."

"So be it." The Caleich sat down, joining Merlin, Morgana, and Gwen in a small circle around the Cup of life.

Merlin levitated Arthur's body to join them in the fifth spot of the star shape etched long ago inside a circle of runes in the center of the courtyard, atop the spot where several major ley lines crossed. Thus their powers were combined. The spell that needed to be cast was an ancient one, a Dragon spell. One which only a Dragonlord could cast. But the power needed to cast it was even beyond Merlin's. Only by joining all their powers could he even hope to achieve it. Even the small, scant power Gwen possessed, as all living things did, which allowed her to breathe and move in the flow of life, would not be wasted.

"Focus on the Cup," The Caliech said. "Fill it with your intentions. Let them be as one vibration, a unity of thought."

Merlin felt the strands of magic weave together. The energy swirled amongst them and through them. It mixed, until he could no longer tell from where any of the strands originated. He lifted his head as the ancient word rose forth from within him. _"Apo ayto to shmeio pros ta empros, oles oi mellontikes zwes. Molis to standar einai etoimo, tha aykshthei apo to stelexos!"_

With the words spoken, the cup glowed brilliantly, a light emanated from it, engulfing completely the five figures who sat there. When all Killgarrah could see was a glowing half sphere of light, it was time for his part of the ritual. With a concentrated belch he let out a stream of white fire, hot enough to burnish the souls of his friends sat beneath it.

~`0\~/0'~

The awakening had been earlier than usual this time. It usually waited until Merlin was an adult, unless it was an emergency. The True Nature of the Old Magic was not so selfish as to unleash the responsibility of their destinies until they were old enough to first understand who they were in their current lifetime... unless it was an emergency. The only time he had awakened earlier was during the late 20th century when he was still a student attending Hogwarts Academy of Magic and Witchcraft. But that was another story. Then, as now, the trigger was a traumatic incident in which the Old Magic called upon him as one of it's few agents in a position to prevent a grievous wrong.

Now was the 52nd century. Now his name was Jethro Cane, the sixteen year old rebellious son of Biff and Val Cane. Now he was sitting in a Crusader vehicle which had broken down somewhere outside the Leisure Dome on a diamond planet called Midnight on the way to see the Sapphire Waterfall. He found it funny, in a morbid sort of way. But as usual, no one got his humor, especially his parents. They were just so vacuous.

.

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

.

**Next Chapter's going to be about Jethro and his parents before the awakening. Trying to cross what we have of Jethro with Merlin was fun. The writing of the character just sort of flowed, though, so I went with it. **

** Subsequent chapters will have Merlin talking with the Doctor on the trip back. Oh, and I will address Jack's Immortality eventually as well. Yep, even magic said it couldn't be done.  
**

**Enjoy.**

**A/N: The Immortality binding spell Merlin uses is **_"From this point forward, all future lives are one. Once the bloom is ready, we grow from this stem." _**I cheated, it's modern Greek. I translated it from English, but all the translators out there I found translate to the Greek alphabet. This site translates the Greek letters to Latin ones: **

**.  
**

**SCOP OUT**


	2. Chapter 1: Whatever

**SCOP'S NOTES:**

**A little bit into Jetho's life before he get's Merlin's memories. Same soul, sure, but he's a product of his times :)**

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

**Chapter 1: Whatever**

The day had started off boring enough, as usual. Jethro ran his perfectly manicured, black stained nails through his dark hair, dyed darker and spiked to reflect his 52nd century individualism. He was lying in a bed that felt uncomfortably comfortable, feigning over-sleeping while achieving one of the best scores ever recorded in _Lances and Lasers_ on his top of the line do-decha linked multi-quon Personal Link Up (or PLU). He was blissfully unaware of the 5000 years of memories that were only just starting to tickle at the edge of his mind or why an irresistible tide in the universe had brought him to this particular place and time.

Well it wasn't exactly a 'usual' day. His parents, who had to be the most vacuous people in the entire universe, had drug him to the most non-usual place in the entire universe only so they could brag about how adventurous they were to their equally vacuous friends who tried to out adventure each other as some sort of conciliation prize for living a real, non-vacuous life. Real life was supposed to have some meaning to it, wasn't it? Some sort of purpose or something?

"Jethro? Come on,my sunny boy, it's time to get up, we'll miss breakfast." He heard his father call from the other side the door.

"I'm not hungry, Biff, go away!" He was just about to get his Zumebidget past the Ognog of Sorrel. Nine-billion-and-seventy-three of his closest cyber-acquaintances across the the known galaxy were Linked Up to watch his glorious moment. This was going to be epic.

"Couldn't you call me 'Dad' again? Like you used to... son?"

"No, Biff. We've already had this discussion." Quarks! did Biff have to be so vacuous all the time? Just up ahead. There it was! Sorrel's Storm!

"Don't talk to your father like that!" Val scolded. She had joined him at the door. When Jetho failed to respond they failed to take the hint.

"That's it, young man! We are going to breakfast like the happy family we are!" Biff Barked. "I paid good money for this trip and we are going to enjoy ourselves!" Jethro smiled. Biff graduated from vacuous to ludicrous when he got angry.

~`0\~/0'~

The breakfast buffet in the hotel's Cotton Candy Bubble Breakfast Nook boasted flavors from a thousand worlds across the Galaxy. And that's just what they were. Favors. Rows and rows of dispensers offered small mineral cubes in a variety of "fun" colors with their chemical structure altered to taste exactly like what the picture on the front of the dispenser said it was and where it was from. The minerals themselves were a muon reconstruction of the bi-products from the hotel's mining operations. One could sample the flavors first by catching one of the bubbles on the tongue that drifted in a steady stream from the machines.

Jethro stared at the varied day-glow and pastel "food" strands blown on sticks that jutted out from the tray in front of him. He didn't know what any of them were. Val and Biff had been fascinated by the process of dipping their sticks into the vats of swirling filaments, emerging with the airy bulbous wisps the brochure called blooms. They'd taken to placing the objects on his tray for him as they drug him through the buffet. The standing table rules of the family were that he had to put his PLU away for at least 15 minutes after sitting down for a meal to share in the 'family conversation'. The clock was ticking.

"Come on, eat up!" Biff encouraged his son as he happily chewed on a bloom, which had immediately changed from an airy bulb to a small chewy mass the moment it entered his mouth. Biff had been slightly annoyed by the transformation at first, considering how much he had paid for the privilege, but he soon caught on to the consent of "fun food" promised by the brochure. Annoyingly, he and Val also started snapping at the random flavor bubbles that filled the room and constantly drifted past their table

"Try the yellow ones, at least," Val chimed in, pointing at an egg-yoked colored piece of fluff. "That's the real flavors of Beta-rappoli cuisine. It's a delectably!"

"If you wanted Beta-rappoli food, why didn't you go to Beta-rappoli?"

"Because Beta-rappoli's not very family friendly, is it? They eat their own young there!" Biff said as if that should have been obvious, which is was. But Biff had to act like he was the only person in the galaxy who knew that. Vacuous moron.

"And you want me to eat something that tastes like infant Beta-rappoli?" Jethro snapped.

"We're not Beta-rappoli, Jethro. It's not cannibalism." Val snapped back. Jethro stared at her. Really? Did Val really think that made it right?

"No, it's just the flavor of it." Jethro said sarcastically. He picked up the yellow bloom and scrunched it between his thumb and forefinger. To his surprise, it immediately snapped back into it's fluffy shape when he released it. "Do we even know what this stuff is? I mean _really_ is? Without the flavoring?"

"It's healthy! It says so on the brochure!" Biff waved a fan of brochure's in the air to prove his point. Near-by flavor bubbles around them went flying.

"But how do you _know_?" Jethro eyed the bloom suspiciously. "Maybe they make it out of dead tourists they lure away from the main heard on one of those excursion trips."

"Oh, you and you're imagination!" Val shook her head.

"Just eat it, all right?" Biff said, pointing his finger at the tray. "I've got a big day planned, you're going to need your strength."

"This isn't going to be like the big Swimming Adventure of yesterday, is it?" Jethro asked, semi-distracted by the newly discovered 'fun' of popping flavor bubbles with his index finger as they passed by. It was almost like playing a vidgame. Almost like cheating on the fifteen minute rule.

"How was I suppose to know the swimming pools in the Leisure Dome were concepts? They look real enough in the brochure."

" The _reflecting_ pools are just there to lull vacuous tourists into thinking it's perfectly normal to sunbath under Xotonic rays. Midnight is a _diamond_ planet."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Biff glared at his son. Jethro glared back, the bubbles forgotten. Did he really have to state something that was so obvious to the vacuous moron?

"Diamond is a form of carbon?" Nothing. "There is no hydrogen naturally occurring on the planet?" Still nothing. "Hydrogen is part of the recipe for water... H 2 O?" Silence "So where are they supposed to get all that water from? Seriously, the sonic showers weren't a dead giveaway?"

"There isn't any natural oxygen here either, but we can still breathe." Biff took a deep breath to prove his point. "That's not a _concept_. They could have harnessed a comet like every other planet does."

Val had had enough of the male bickering and turned her attention back to her husband. "What's the plan, then?"

"Yes Biff, do tell." Jethro went back to bubble popping.

Biff did his best to bring the conversation to a more civil, happy family tone."We're going on a excursion to see the Sapphire Waterfall."

"A Sapphire Waterfall? There's one of those in my vidgame." Jethro's interest started to peak. "It's the end prize. No one's ever gotten that far."

"Well, you're about to, and this one's for real." Val and Biff stared at their son, expectantly, hoping to see some sign of the youthful excitement that used to fill his face on their family adventures.

"Whatever." Jethro said. The fifteen minutes were up. He picked up his PLU and was back into the game. He hated doing that to Val and Biff, but he really couldn't give in now or they'd never let him forget it. He aimlessly reached for a food bloom and ate it. It was quite good actually. And it was fun how it just disintegrated in the mouth.

Truth was, he really did want to see that Sapphire Waterfall. Something about going there was a more compelling tug than anything he had felt in his entire 15 year old life. It was something important, but he couldn't say why. Truth was, he had subtly hinted to his parents to come to Midnight in the first place, just to see that waterfall, ever since he heard it was real and was the inspiration for the one in the game. Truth was, no one could have drug him away from making this trip.

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

**The next chapter's going to deal with the actual episode. **

**SCOP OUT**


	3. Chapter 2: That Funny Feeling

**Once Upon a Midnight Dreary  
**

**Chapter 2 – ****That Funny Feeling**  


**Posted Aug 31, 2012**

**A/N So, I've been out of commission for a bit. Had to move. Had tons of training classes for work, took a trip to Pierrefonds and watched them film Merlin (great castle, I recommend the trip if you can do it), lost my job and was in the chorus of a community theater production of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".**

**I've finally got a stable wifi connection though, Woo Hoo! Time to continue this puppy!  
**

**Oh, and you can find some my pictures of Pirrefonds here:  
**

** /2012June_Angel  
**

** /2012June_Bradley**

** /2012June_Colin**

**More to come as I get them sorted and uploaded...  
**

**Addendum: since web pages are deleted, add the above to the Photobucket main website and you should be able to see the pictures. Pierrefonds is where the castle is that Merlin is shot in. It's open to the public so you can watch them film.  
**

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

For eons, it lie in wait, it's will keeping it anchored to existence as the merciless rays of the star above disintegrated what was left of it's form to dust. Slowly, it learned the ways of it's prison until the pattern of the world around it became as natural as breathing. Slower still, it learned to manipulate those patterns, and it was then that it realized the mistake his captors had made. It sent the subtlest of thoughts out into the universe. It wasn't much, but over time it grew strenght, like a siren song tickling a the back of the minds of whatever sentient beings traveled through it's gossamer threads.

_Here be diamonds…_

Patiently, it waited for life to take hold and had advanced enough to take the lure. Life advanced for only one reason. It was greedy.

Eventually, life did come. It came with it's shovels and it's transports and it's entertainments, and most important, it's stronger connections to what lie beyond. Over the years, it made it's suggestions. It wasn't direct control, such things were beyond it now, even on such shallow minds that called this shiny midnight world their home. Just suggestions, a small series of suggestions repeated again and again, nagging at the back of the brain and repeated by mouths with greater influence than it now possessed. Most seeds didn't take, but over time-and it had plenty of time-some seeds did take root, and they grew into a splendid trap. A curiosity trap made specially for the curious type. When the trap would spring, it had no idea. Just that it would, one day. It could wait. Waiting was all it could do now. It had time. And given enough of it, it's jailer would take the bait. The meddling fool so loved a good mystery.

Then it would have it's revenge… and it's freedom… and an entire universe of Space and Time to subdue.

It could wait…

~`0\~/0'~

The embarkation gate for CRUSADER TOURS was nestled in a small alcove off one of the Leisure Palace's shopping promenades. The air was adin with adverts in competition with one another to be the loudest and gaudiest in an attempt to lure the passing tourist in to their respective shop. The promenade had a name, but Jethro didn't concern himself with memorizing it. It wasn't important.

What was important was the journey ahead. It felt as if something was drawing him to this point in space and time his entire life. But he couldn't let his parents know about the excitement welling up inside him. Something about them knowing was … dangerous. He leaned against a pillar just outside the alcove and tried to look bored while he stared at the vid screen playing scenes of the Sapphire Waterfall.

It was impossible to hear the commentary above the din of the promenade. He tried to drowned it out in his mind, but Biff was arguing loudly with the ticket clerk, trying to get a better deal on the ticket price he was quite capable of affording.

"All I'm saying is we got two Buy-One-Get-One-Free passes with our vacation package."

"But sir, there's only three of you in your party."

"Exactly. It's half price for me, half price for my wife. It should be half price for my son as well."

"But sir, that's not how a Buy-One-Get-One works. You have to buy another full price-"

This was going to take awhile, Jethro thought. He turned his attention to a strange looking man across the way talking on the "cute" – as his mother called it – retro style payphone, begging his girlfriend one last time to join him on this excursion.

"Sapphire waterfall! It's a waterfall made of Sapphires!"

His first thought when he saw the man was _Crikie, who the frel dressed him?_

He was wearing bright blue shirt under a black pinstripe suit and a brown trench coat over that. The touch of genius though was the shoes. Trainers… nice. This, obviously, was a man who wasn't afraid of anything. Except maybe his girlfriend.

"This enormous jewel the size of a glacier, reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion and then shatters into sapphires at the edge. They fall one hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine…. Oh come on, they're leaving now. It's no fun if I see it on my own. Four hours, that's all it takes."

_Liar_, Jethro thought. It wasn't going to be a fun trip back once the girlfriend found out that four hours was only one way.

Jethro closed his eyes and tried to imagine what the woman on the other end of the "phone" conversation (as they called them here) looked like. A red head, he decided. Lounging around one of the reflecting pools in one of those white hotel robes and being waited on hand and foot-which was odd, because Jethro didn't get the impression that any woman who would catch this man's attention would be of the vacuous sort. Something else was keeping her away… _because… she would … try to … interfere…. Stay, little pretty one, that's it. Stay and watch the pretty lights…_

"What was that?" Jethro said to himself. It was almost like a voice inside his head. A cold dead voice. But that was impossible. Biff had insisted the family all get buzz chips after he was kept awake half the night on Gantos 3. Biff had neglected to check The Guide or he would have know ahead of time that Gantos 3 was one of the few places left in the perceivable reality that still allowed adverts to be beamed directly into the brain. Maybe Val was right. Maybe all those vid games _were_ getting to him. _Parish that thought!_

Their relationship wouldn't last, Jethro decided. It would all end in tears. He was usually right about these sorts of things… well not usually. He was _always_ right about these sorts of things.. A part of him wanted to tell the man he should end it now, save them both the heartache. Problem was, people usually… always… never listened to him about these sorts of things.

The man hung up the phone and showed his ticket to the embarkation clerk. Jethro decided not to tell him, even though they would be spending the next 8 or so hours penned up together in the same Crusader vehicle. He was used to people not listening to him and his "ideas". The man would find out for himself during the course of time. That was usually for the best. Some people needed pain in order for them to grow.

Ironically, that's when it hit him. Not a pain, exactly, but more like the feeling you get right before the pain hits that makes you brace for it. But there was no pain. Just a little … wobble … in the world that rippled through everything but which no one else seemed to notice… leaving behind a subtle wake of dizzying giddiness as whatever had taken hold released.

"Jethro!" Val yelled at him, "Jethro, come on! We're boarding." Biff have won the argument, somehow. "Hurry up so we can sit together!"

Jethro shook his head to clear it. The voices, the wobble feeling, even his excitement about this trip. It was probably just a delayed reaction to that sip of Arcturan Mega-gin he had sniffed the night before. There was a reason it was banned in three galaxy's, but Biff and Val insisted they imbibe in the experience while they had the chance. He followed his parents onto the transport vehicle, but not before giving the ticket clerk a shrug to say "I know, they're pathetic. Sorry." She looked haggard from trying to sort through his father's logic. A blank stare hung on her face. He decided he'd buy her food bloom when they got back. One of the blue one's that tasted like strawberries. She was kind of cute. Biff and Val were going to have to be punished for what they did to her. Eight hours of family togetherness were NOT going to happen.

~`0\~/0'~

"Midnight Central, this is Crusader Vehicle 1138 requesting a departure window for the Sapphire Waterfall."

"Negative CV1138. We've just had a rock fall along the route through Winter Witch Canyon."

"A rock fall? How long is it going to take to clear that?"

"Not sure. They're going to have to divert some mining equipment. That's going to have to be requisitioned."

"Great, I've got paid customers on board. You know how the company feels about refunds."

"Hold on, the computer's calculated an alternate route."

"An alternate route, is it safe."

"It would have to have been traveled before, or it wouldn't have it in the database. An old mining route, maybe."

"But is it safe."

"Must be, the computer calculated it… unless you want to give your passengers a refund."

"No thanks, we'll take the route."

"Downloading the new route into your Nav-Drive."

"Thanks, just don't loose us out there, okay?… Hello?"

"CV1138, you are clear for departure."

~`0\~/0'~

Jethro planted himself in the row across the isle from where his parents sat, but he chose the seat next to the window instead of the isle seat because he knew it would annoy them. He tried to look bored, but the excitement was getting to him.

"They call it a sapphire waterfall but it's no such thing," the man in the seat in front of him, a professor type, Jethro decided. The kind who liked hearing the sound of their own brilliance. "Sapphire's an aluminum oxide, but the glacier's just a compound silica with an iron pigmentation."

_Some people just like to take the joy out of everything_, Jethro thought. The professor just officially went on his Ignore List.

Surprisingly, the journey was turning out to be rather pleasant. It had started out on a bad note when the ships entertainment system failed. It was a mega-real spectacular with Betty Boop dancing in a sea of rainbow glitter while one of those ancient Earth music vids from Raffaello Cara (his PLU look vibration identifier informed him) blared on the vid screens. It would have been the perfect background environment to give him better focus on his game, maybe finally break through the Wall of Segurnis and gain the powers of the Lode Stone, but his PLU failed to pick up signal once the entertainment system failed.

Fortunately, the man with the trainers and trench coat was on board. He'd taken charge of the situation while the stewardess was busy working out how to repair the system. Jethro got the feeling that taking charge of things was something this man-the Doctor he called himself-was good at. Not only good at, he loved it, but not in a narcissistic sort of way like the professor. He loved it because when he was in charge, no one narcissistic was. This Doctor fellow got everyone… _talking _of all things. He wound up having a nice chat with Dee Dee, the professor's assistant. She had some interesting things to say about the lost moon of Poosh. Unfortunately Dee Dee suffered from the same malady he did. No one was listening to her.

~`0\~/0'~

230 Kliks into the journey, Jethro found himself standing next to the Doctor in line for the Crusader's only toilet pod. There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two of them, which Jethro found odd considering how talkative the man had been. Jethro decided it had to do with the situation, as most people who weren't his parents found it awkward to talk in the toilet line. True to form, though, the doctor was the first to break the silence.

"So, are you awake?"

Jethro stared at the man. "That's a rather odd question."

"Right. Well, it wouldn't be if you were but since it is, then you're not. Just forget I said anything. Do you come on these sorts of trips with you're parents often?"

_Weird, _Jethro thought. But he decided to play along anyway. He liked weird. "Every mid-cycle." He leaned back against the crusader's wall. "Biff and Val want to ensure that my education isn't completely virtual."

"Oh, that's very contentious of them"

"Not really. They just want to be able to tell their friends that their son's education wasn't completely virtual."

"So, none of this is for you, then?" The Doctor asked.

"No." Jethro pulled out his PLU, hoping to get some life out of it.

"Couldn't have been all bad." The Doctor leaned back against the wall, mimicking Jethro's stance. "I've bet you've seen some things that weren't completely vacuous."

Jethro thought for a moment. "Three years ago we watched Sol expand into a red giant and engulf the Earth. That was pretty cool."

"Or warm, depending upon which window you were looking out of. Were you on Platform 5 with the Face of Boe?"

"I wish. We were on Platform 17 out near Jupiter. Dad had a land deal on Titan. Quadrillion-ed in value once the earth went under and we were at a party with the other investors. Could hardly see anything. Just a speck that got a little brighter on the horizon. Who cares about Titan if the place isn't going to be inhabitable for another three million years."

"Three million years. That's a long time. But this new place. Could be worth protecting."

It's just that… no one felt sad about the Earth dying like that. Like it was just some old ball that we got tired of playing with. They were all so happy." Jethro punched at a few buttons on the PLU. Nothing. Maybe if he removed the back. People did that to fix thins, didn't they? He remembered that from somewhere.

"But you weren't?"

"No. It was like something had ended that was important, but no one could understand."

"All things end. But then something else begins."

"I suppose." Jethro tossed his useless PLU. "They could have drug the planet to the orbit of Jupiter or Saturn even. Keep it as a museum. But everyone wanted to watch the Earth die."

"This tract of land your father has on Titan. What's it called?"

"New Albion."

"He let you name it did he?"

Jethro glanced at the Doctor in a manor of agreement. But thinking about Earth not existing anymore left him rather melancholy.

The Doctor smiled. "I suppose that's something. What _are_ you doing here, then?"

"What? Why?" Jethro tried to supress a smirk. This Doctor fellow was an odd sort, but then Jethro liked odd.

"Just making small talk." The Doctor said. "You said your parents took you on these trips every mid-cycle."

"And?"

"Well, take a look around, it's definitely not mid-cycle."

"We're in a crusader vehicle. What exactly am I suppose to be looking at?"

"That's good. Always question everything. You're here, I'm here. Theoretically, so is everyone else. This is the middle of nowhere. I came here on vacation. No reason what so ever, completely at random in all of space and time. If there's no reason for me being here, then there's got to be a reason for you being here."

Jethro stared at the Doctor, a bit confused. "Are you trying to chat me up?"

"What? No!" The Doctor stammered. "I'm just-"

With that the toilet pod doors opened and that stuffy professor fellow exited.

"You're loss." Jethro said with a shrug as he stepped through the pod doors. "Oh, and if you're going to be on vacation, you should do what people your age normally do on vacation. You know, relax. Let your guard down."

With that, the pod doors closed.

~`0\~/0'~

The Doctor blinked. The message had been received even though the sender didn't know he had sent it.

He'd made a stupid mistake, somewhere along the way. He'd spent the entire trip out trying to figure out _why_ Merlin was here instead of trying to figure why Merlin was _here. _

_So, why am I here? _And what did he actually know about Midnight anyway? Other than that he always wanted to go out to the observation dome to see the Waterfall. But he was saving the trip for something special. When he could enjoy it. When he had time to ... _relax_.

"He's right. I _have_ let my guard down," the Doctor said to himself. "But from what?" He'd learned long ago the hard way that it was best to listen to Merlin's warnings, even if the warlock wasn't yet fully awake to his lifetime. Even in his slumber, Merlin still had ways of knowing that could spook even the Timelords.

He spied the professor arguing with his assistant over her inefficiency at sitting back down in her isle seat while he was in the toilet.

"You shouldn't have retaken your seat until I was done. Then there wouldn't be all this unnecessary switching around."

"Of course, professor," the brow beaten girl said.

"Excuse me, Professor," The Doctor called to him. "This is my first time to Midnight. You seem to be an expert on the place. What can you tell us about it. Anything dangerous out there? I mean, except for the Xtonic rays."

The professor's face lit up. "I'm glad you asked that question, Doctor. Dee Dee, get the projector!

~`0\~/0'~

Jethro came out of the bathroom just in time to help Dee Dee who was struggling to get the projector from the overhead bin.

The professor was enjoying himself, giving his presentation to his captive audience.

But Jethro noticed a lot of places in the professors reasoning where he assumed certain presumptions were fact, instead of idle speculation that weren't supported by enough knowledge to dismiss them as a done deal. Wouldn't get away with that in _Lances and Lasers_, that was for sure. And the professor was really big bit of assumption go unquestioned.

"Before the Leisure Palace moved in, no one had come here in all eternity. Not one living soul."

"How do you know? I mean… if no one can go outside." The question was out of his mouth before Jethro cold think of the consequences. It was so much easier to appear disinterested in the world. It kept you out of trouble.

"His imagination," Val had to chime in. "Here we go!"

_But it's not like that! _Jethro wanted to shout at his mother. _I really want to know!_

Before he could start a shouting match with Val, the Doctor interrupted. "That's a good point."

"Exactly!" the professor said. Take that, Val. The shoddy professor's on _my_ side!

The professor continued. "We look upon this world through glass, safe inside our metal box."

_Oh, he's good this one_, Jethro thought. _Building up he mystery. _

"Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit," the professor continued in his mysterious tone. Had everyone on the edge of their seats. "And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

Jethro felt that slight giddy feeling again and he grabbed on to the back of his chair. There was a rattling noise, and then the engines went silent.

_Brilliant, _Jethro thought. _That was absolutely brilliant!_

But a nagging, tickling thought in the back of his brain told him it wasn't the professor who was the brilliant one. Something had just... pushed at the universe, and the nagging feeling told him it wasn't done yet. They were in trouble, and it wasn't _because_ they were on a broken down Crusader vehicle on an uncharted route with limited supplies and nothing but Xtonic death outside to escape to... It was _why_ they were there.

Jethro glanced at the Doctor. He knew it too. Something was going on that was more important than what _this_ looked like and he and the Doctor were the only ones who could stop it because they were the only two who knew there was something to stop. He should have been scared. Everything in his 15 cycles of life told him he should have been scared.

Funny thing was... it felt like old times.


	4. Chapter 3: Slipping

**Once Upon a Midnight Dreary**

**Chapter 3 – Slipping  
**

**Posted Sept 9, 2012**

**A/N**

**Glad everyone's enjoying this story... and Nobody, apparently, as well ;)  
**

**Katerina, to answer your question... yes, but it will happen in a way that is totally unexpected (I've been reading too many articles from the producers of Merlin about what's to come in Series 5- GRRR!)  
**

**This chapter was a bit tricky to write as it covers the section of the story that was intentionally meant to be uneventful in the beginning, then transitions confused panic before the action begins. I think I worked through it, though after several rewrites. **

**Let me know what you think :)  
**

**Scop Out**

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

It glided on a thin sea of positrons that existed between two Xton-magneto layers which naturally formed on Midnight's surface-a reaction between the iron dust and the Xtonic radiation. With the slightest of suggestions, it could propel itself in the direction it chose. If anyone were watching, what would they see? A shadow? A cloud dust being blown by the wind? But this was Midnight. No one was watching, and there was no wind.

It had felt the moment his jailer's machine finally alighted within the planet's space/time. Xtonic radiation and temporal energy created a unique vibrational pattern that rippled through the entire planet. It hadn't been sure what that energy would feel like, just that it would be something... different, different than anything it had felt over the eons it had been trapped in the cold darkness.

And then, one day, different came...

In the same way, it tracked the more subtler temporal tremors of his jailer, first to the gates of the city, then the steady progress within the vehicle that brought the clueless-clever-curious man to his doom.

The rockfall had been easily enough to accomplish. Find the weakest point and push, find the weakest point and push, and let nature take it's course. Stalling the engines... child's play for one so studied in the ways of Midnight as it was.

So close... so CLOSE it's prey was now. All t'was left was to find the weakness that would gain it entry into the transport. So soon, so SOON! Soon it's jailer would learn his mistake. His fascination would be his blindness. His fascination would cast him to his doom. The life that fell to Midnight was just as easy to control as the rock. The secret was not to rush things and not be greedy. It wasn't the whole mind that needed to be controlled. Just the part that sang the song of fear.

Find the weakest point and push... find the weakest point and push...

~`0\~/0'~

_Old Times_

That thought frightened Jethro more than anything he could imagine lurking on the surface of Midnight, even with all the volumes of forgotten lore he had roaming around in his head. Instinctively, he retreated from the thought, went back to thinking about lurky things and how frightening _they_ could be.

_"Idiot,"_ Jethro chided himself. _"You've let the professor's spooky-talk get to you." _

Val would have a field day with that, wouldn't she? _Of course_ this all felt vaguely familiar. It was just like one of his vid-games-one of the Riddle Games where you had to use your wits to puzzle your way out. It was funny when he thought about it.

"We've broken down!" Jethro laughed. "In the middle of nowhere."

"That's enough, now stop it!" Biff chimed in.

It wasn't like they were in any _real_ danger. According to the brochure, Crusaders left for the Sapphire Waterfall every hour on the hour, 29x7. There was another one just behind. What could happen in an hour?

And that Doctor fellow? Turned out to be some sort of inspector. No wonder he was so jazzed when the breakdown occurred. Three and a half hours of idle chit chat with this lot was enough to dull anyone's mind. No doubt the Doctor was excited he had a mystery to explore. He'd probably get them up and running before the next transport arrived.

Jethro didn't have that luxury of something else to occupy his his mind. Not with his vid-game broke. All he could do was what the stewardess had said. It was sound advice, actually. Sit back, stay calm, relax... observe..._ figure out the riddle._

~`0\~/0'~

Mechanic Claude's eye went wide when he spied the impossible movement on Midnight's surface yet again. "Look, look, there it is, there it is, look, there!"

"Where?! What was it?" that strange Doctor fellow, who had burst into the cabin to help check on the engines, asked.

"Like, just, something... shifting, something sort of... dark. Like it was...running."

"Running which way?"

Mechanic Claude swallowed. "Towards us..."

~`0\~/0'~

_Damn!_ Sky thought. _Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!_ She wasn't even supposed to be here. This wasn't a vacation for her like it was for the others. After Rain left, she had poured herself into her work. She had worked _so hard_ on this proposal. Getting it meant a raise and a promotion. Then maybe she could get her life on track again.

But when her meeting at the Leisure Palace had been postponed, Sky found herself with several hours to kill. Spending it in her room or lying next to the reflecting pools would have been torture. It would have left her too much time to think about Rain and the dying embers of their relationship, of that final, terrible argument they had before Rain decided she'd rather "find meaning in her life before the darkness came," -whatever that meant-and the unbroken silence that followed. What more meaning was there in life than to find someone you loved?

Wandering through one of the Leisure Dome's shopping promenades, she saw the adverts for the Crusader tours to the Sapphire Waterfall, and she thought _why not_? _Why not live a little. You deserve it after the cycle you've had. _

It was just a whim, really. Nothing like what the old her would have done, always so fixed to her stupid schedules. Rain would have been proud. There just wasn't that much time between the scheduled return time of the tour and the start of her meeting. She'd bairly have enough time to prepare as it was, and now... Who knew how long this was going to take. So much for taking a risk. A stupid, stupid risk.

~`0\~/0'~

_Great,_ Jethro thought. _Leave it to Val to find the one thing in the Doctor's conversation she could take out of context._

"How much air have we got?" Val demanded.

"Mum, just stop it." Jethro pleaded, hoping that calling her _Mum_ would snap her out of her rant. The last thing they needed was for everyone to start panicking. Everyone was on edge, and that weird humming noise he was hearing wasn't helping. It was not completely unlike that mosquito tone-the ones that kids could hear but adults couldn't-except that he felt it more than heard it. A gentle thrumming that he could just barely not quite ignore.

"I assure you, everything is under control," the hostess said.

"Well, doesn't look like it to me!" Biff huffed.

Way to go, Biff. Way to keep the situation calm. The stewardess would have to do a lot better if she was trying to reassure _his_ parents. Biff and Val always felt better if he had something specific to protest.

Everyone started yelling. It might have been amusing if it weren't so loud. Really, what did they expect to accomplish. Idly, Jethro wondered if someone was having a go at them? Like one of those reality vids where they put people unknowingly into wacky, surreal situations and watch how they react. It kind of felt like that... like they were being played. Wouldn't it be hilarious if they were on digi-film?

"Quiet!" The Doctor finally got his voice to rise above the din. "Thank you. Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend Dee Dee."

Jethro decided he liked Dee Dee. From a gaming point of view she was doing quite well. Earlier she had established herself as an authority over all things mechanical by stating that her family were mechanics when she questioned the official explanation of their current predicament given by the Powers that Be. Good enough for this crowd. Everyone bought her simple explanation of the circular filters worked. Even Val could understand it. No technical jargon. Panic solved. 10 points Dee Dee.

The Doctor fellow, though, he wasn't so sure about. He had made a classic mistake. The Doctor was trying to be the leader, but he hadn't established his _right_ to lead. He just expected everyone to fall into line. Military type, maybe? That put the Doctor behind like 1000 points. He was slipping.

He should have established the Stewardess as the boss. She had the authority after all. Then all he'd have to do is control her, offering helpful suggestions and let her deal with the rabble while he tried to figure out what went wrong with the Crusader. Sure, she was obviously a low level player, but that just meant she would have welcomed the help. As things stood now, he had to deal with both problems. Borrowing from Dee Dee's expertise had bought him some time, but he did so at the expense of making the others feel stupid. Biff wouldn't put up with that for long. He'd be fine for awhile, but if something else set this lot off-

K

Okay, that was weird. Professor Hobbes was... probably... right. He was the expert after all. Been here fourteen times before, it was probably just the Crusader's metal hull cooling down.

K

_Or maybe not._

"Is there someone out there?" Val asked.

"Now don't be ridiculous!"

"Like I said, it could be rocks."

_Great!, _Jethro thought._ Something weird happens and the first thing Mr. Expert-on-Midnight and his lovely assistant do is stonewall themselves behind their pet theories without any facts to back them up and the only person who's asking the right questions is my Mum! _ Dee Dee and the professor just lost about a gajillion points each.

K

"Knock knock", the Doctor repeated. At least he was trying to work out what was going on.

"Who's there?" Jethro answered. He couldn't resist the set-up. This was all so surreal! Quarks, if a big metal egg suddenly turned up in his home-sphere, he'd rap on it a few times too. Try to figure out what was inside. He wondered "the creature"-if there were such a thing could hear the thrumming sound.

The Doctor seemed to think there was something alive out there was too... or at least wasn't blindly denying the possibility. It would probably be just as blind to assume the knocking _was_ being made by something alive. Once you started assuming things, you risked missing the little things that could be key to solving the actual riddle. _Forget assumptions, Jethro. What do you know?_

K

That came from another part of the transport.

"It's moving." Jethro said. Whatever the cause of the knocking, it was interact with the ship, and it could move... and it had rhythm. Okay, that gave more credence to it being alive. Next question: what was it's temperament? Was it curious, aggressive, or even worse... playful?

"It's trying the door," Val yelled.

"There is no 'it', there's nothing out there. Can't be."

That's it, professor, you just stick to that theory. But something was rattling the fire exit door. _Who the bloody hell puts a fire exit door on a ship traveling through Xtonic radiation?_

"That's the entrance, can it get in?"

It was just then, that Biff decided to do something uncharacteristically non-vacuous. Useful, even. While everyone else was just sitting there, being frightened and all in idle speculation, without hesitation, his dad actually got up and walked to the fire exit door.

"Nah, it's cast iron, that door." Biff rapped on it three times so show it's solidness.

"It answered!" Jethro felt his heart beating. Whatever-it-was-out-there-that-couldn't-be-but-was had tried to communicate. It wasn't only alive. it was intelligent.

Everyone started yelling again... and the thumbing vibration in the background got a little bit louder, a little bit faster. It was starting to be annoying.

And some part of him that was older than his fifteen cycles, burred deep inside it's cocoon, realized that his heartbeat had grown a little bit faster to match.

~`0\~/0'~

It spread itself thin to engulf the transport. The transport felt warm, but more lush was the rush of fear emanating from inside. It needed more. It needed to coax the fear to it's full bloom. By warping the rate of positronic decay, it created an ultrasonic pulse across the hull that resonated within the fear centers of the human brain. Such a slight thing it was... but a steady, constant, slight thing, gently tapping at the weakness hidden in the lattice of the human core. The mind of it's jailer would remain untouched, unknowing of the trap's spring being wound constantly tighter.

The minds inside were strong, stubborn things, but the fear was weakening them. They were like bugs, trapped inside a glass jar, and the jar was heating up. All it needed was one, one mind pushed too far, one mind to buckle and let it's defenses fall. Then it could find it's way in. The pulse worked well, but only on the subconsciousness. To bring the fears to the surface, it needed more... like... something rapping on the transport door?

Laughter. It remembered laughter. It would laugh manically now if it could. It only had to push a small bit of positron out of the Xton-magneto layer and onto the surface of the hull.

Bang-Bang!

Bang-Bang!

It ignored the pain of the tiny explosions ripping through it's existence. What were they to the burning cold and the long, endless time under an unforgiving star?

Whump-Whump-Whump

How cute. One of it's bugs was trying to communicate. Someone inside was trying to reason things out. Oh, that would never do. A reasoning mind wasn't generating fear, the fear it needed to fuel the next phase of it's plan if it were to work at all.

Bang-Bang-Bang!

Yes, YES! _That_ was more like it. He could feel the vibrations of the voices through the hull. Feel the echo of it's own ultrasonic pulse was having. By now the heartbeats of it's little bugs would be attuned to that pulse. It had their minds, now it had their hearts. Even it's jailer's heart would not be immune to what would come next. Slowly, it increased the frequency ultrasonic pulse. A physical effect to reinforce the mental prodding. And none of them would know what was happening, that they were already under it's control. But who would it be? Who would be the first to fall?

Four Whumps came from inside, from it's jailer's own hand this time. It would be rude not to answer.

Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang!

_What the hell, let's have a bang up time?_ Tiny explosions ripped through it's entire body... But it was so _worth_ it. Someone had cracked. Someone was falling. For in the heart of the weakest mind that would become it's open window to the inside, it found something even more than delicious than fear.

It found Despair.

_I'm coming for you, pretty one._

With a burning desire, eons old, it focused it's intentions on it's intended host. Pouring the last bit of energy it's form held into the spell, it slipped into the cradle of the now defenseless mind. One final shudder, and that would crack as well, giving it a new home, a new form. A living... breathing... warm... body.

It hesitated, for only an instant, contemplating what that existence would be like again. Then with the words, it unleashed the spell.

_Frightful terrors are in store. Know this now and nothing more. All alone, no one will cry. I'm coming for you, pretty, pretty, lonely Sky!_

~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~ ~`0\~/0'~

**A/N The above spell is not in Old English because the TARDIS interpreted it for us.**

**Enjoy, fellow time travelers, there's more to come :)**


	5. Chapter 4: Identity

**Once Upon a Midnight Dreary**

**Chapter 4 – Identity  
**

**Posted Oct 7, 2012**

**A/N**

**Sorry it took me so long to post this one. I'm writing it simultaneously with another story called A Slight Misunderstanding. It was taking me about a week to write and post each story, but that went to two weeks for both this time around. I hope you like the results, though. And check out the other story if you haven't already.**

**Let me know what you think :)**

**Scop Out**

~`0\~/0'~~`0\~/0'~~`0\~/0'~

Just before the lights went out Jethro felt another one of those funny warbles. It fluttered through him with a, sickly giddiness that felt evil, like it could burn his soul if it lasted too long. There was a difference though the warble he had felt just before they boarded the Crusader was a weak, distant thing. This one was much, much stronger...

_That was magic!_ Jethro thought to himself. _Evil magic_. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew it _was_ magic. This wasn't one of his vid games. This was real. Something dark and brutal was casting spells and this time, it's source was..._here_.

The True Nature of the Old Magic within him instinctively reacted to protect him. A process which normally occurred gently over the course of several months, allowing the memories of lives long past to integrate naturally would now unfold rapidly over the course of the next two hours inside Jethro Cain's mind. The sudden integration had only happened to him on a handful of occasions out of the blur of lifetimes his soul traveled through over the past five thousand years. It was only natural that the memories from those lifetimes, when the circumstances of the world around him had been so grim as to awaken the sleeping power within him at such an early age..,. It was only natural that those memories surfaced first. It would be the only time the process would fail him.

The explosion happened a moment later. Jethro saw it unfold in slow motion. The Crusader teetered to the left, then to the right. Starboard and port, an old nautical memory told him. Everyone on board toppled with it. Everyone except for him. For Jethro, the world rocked gently, slowly enough for him to compensate, _It's just adrenalin_, Jethro told himself. _It heightens the senses, making it seem like time has slowed. _

The front cabin door opened, just a tiny crack. Time slowed to a crawl. A flash of Xtonic light seeped into the cabin with all the speed of molasses spilling down a gentle slope on a cold day. A momentary panic passed through him: His Mum and Dad, they were in terrible danger. He could loose them again. Immediately the ship's auto repairs zipped the air seal closed with terrifying speed. The rest of the world continued putter at a snails pace.

_Time doesn't work like this in real life, it's impossible._

~`0\~/0'~

_Meanwhile, in an alternate universe..._

Mickey Smith threw his spanner at the mangle of wires and connection coming out of the machine he'd been working on and cursed."It's no good! I can't get any more power out of her."

"We keep trying!" Rose Tyler glared at her friend. "Failure's not an option. We fail, we all die! Every universe, everywhere! Is that what you want?"

"No, of course not!" Micky yelled back at her.

"It was a slim chance anyway" Harry-one of the University Wiz Kids her father had hired into the project said. "The last time a connection was made between two parallel universes it took the power of dying sun. There has to be anomaly in space and time on the other side at the exact place and time we're looking if we're to have any hope of a signal getting through."

"Trust me, if there's an anomaly in space and time in my old universe, It's going to happen on the other end of that phone." Harry had rigged up a madding mass of wires and connectors to get her mobile connected to the technology of this universe. It sort of reminded her of how the Doctor rigged his TARDIS with bits of odds and ends. It was random, but it worked.

"I hope you're right about that." Harry said.

"I don't understand. We have Cybermen, Daleks... Why aren't there any Timelords in this universe? There was another me, why can't there be another Doctor out there, somewhere? Why can't we contact him?"

"There might be another Doctor, there might not. Maybe this universe's Doctor never survived the Time War. Maybe this universe's Doctor never stole a TARDIS but stayed on Galefrey instead. All we know is that if there is a Doctor in this universe, he never contacted Earth. One little change, that's all it takes. Something happened in our universe that didn't happen in this one. Whatever tied the Doctor to Earth in our universe, that series of events never happen here."

"What changed?" Mickey asked.

Rose glanced over to Harry, then shook her head. "I really couldn't say."

"Hang on, I'm getting something." Harry said. Something had him excited.

"What is it?" Rose asked. She and Mickey ran to his council to see what Harry was looking at.

"I'm not sure... It's like..." Harry was puzzled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say time was slowing down in the other universe... But that's... That's impossible."

"No it's not! I only know one man who can slow down time. It's got to be him!" Rose ran to the concil holding her phone.

"It's got to be the Doctor. He's trying to get through!" Mickey explained.

"No you don't understand, this isn't a localized event. It's happening at the same point in time as where your phone's connected to, but not the same point. It's every point. It's the whole universe-ah, the other one"

"That's impossible." Mickey said

"Oh, it sounds like him!" Rose said. An excitement filled her that Mickey sadly realized he hadn't seen in Rose since she'd been separated from the Doctor. "Do we have enough power to break through that anomaly?"

"Just barely... but..." Harry did some quick calculations. "...Yes! We can do it. If we give it everything we've got. I think we can actually do it. You won't have much time, though."

"Rose, get on the horn. See if you can contact that spaceman of yours." Mickey bellowed.

"Already there!"

~`0\~/0'~

As soon as he thought the word "_impossible_" everything began moving at normal speed again. For a brief moment, the Crusader's electrics flashed on again before dying into darkness once more. Peering into the darkness, Jethro blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. There had been something else. Something he'd almost missed in all the bizarro mind freak of the last two minutes. Just before the last of the Xtonic photons found a surface to illuminate, Jethro thought he saw a shadow slip through the mending crack in the cabin door and into the blond lady leaning next to it. The one who had been in a panic only moments before.

"Everyone, take a torch, they're in the back of the seats" Jethro heard the hostess say. He grabbed for one, not realizing the object of his desire found his hand before his hand located it.

"Oh sweetheart, come here." Jethro reached for his mums hand and they both gave a squeeze to reassure each other they were all right. Then he turned his flashlight to the front of the cabin. He had to find the blond lady, find out what happened to her. Make sure she was okay... and wasn't...something else.

The light from his torch passed over the front of the cabin. Amongst a ruined tangle of what had been the first row seats on the starboard side, Jethro spied a crouched figure. He dropped his mother's hand to get a closer look... just not too close. Illuminated in a single circle of light, crouched and perfectly still, Jethro recognized the blond lady.

"Never mind me, what about her?" The others shown their torches to where Jethro's was pointing. It was obvious something was wrong with her, something beyond just being frightened. The rest of them were frightened. She was something... _else_. Jethro gave a quick glance to the Doctor. Out of all of them, it just seemed natural he would be the one who would go to meet the unknown. Jethro would be ready, just in case, of course. In the background waiting to act if something went wrong. That seemed natural, too. He had no idea what he would do if something actually _did_ go wrong-aside from them breaking down in the middle of nowhere and the Crusader being rocked violently by some unknown creature that shouldn't exist, sending the cabin into darkness-but he'd be ready. He had to protect his parents. He couldn't fail them again. Not this time.

"What happened to the seats?" his mother asked. Jethro reached back to take her hand again.

The Doctor approached the blond lady as if he were coming up to a frightened animal and petted her hair gently. "It's all right, it's over, we're still alive, look, The wall's still intact. D'you see? We're safe."

Jethro looked at the dents in the cabin walls, the worst of which were nearer to where the blond lady cowered. None of the dents were punctured. The light he had seen earlier, it had to have been it's imagination. Barely, he was aware of the hostess trying to contact the front cabin crew.

"I'm not getting any response, the intercom must be down." A bright, blinding light silhouetted the hostess as she opened the door to the front cabin. Jethro had read up on Xtonic radiation during the trip over to Midnight. Now he wished he hadn't He knew exactly what was going o happen to him, exactly how many milli-clicks it would take those rays to melt their bodies into dust. He wondered if it was going to hurt.

~`0\~/0'~

Sunlight poured through the vast windows overhead and bounced off the rows and rows polished chrome bed rails, dazzling his eyes. The memory was thousands of years old, but it came to Jethro as fresh as if it were from this lifetime. He was maybe about three years old, holding onto his grandmother's hand, walking through an open ward in St Mungo's Hospital, just across the Thames in the original London on Earth. The place smelled of musty herbs and antiseptic. The smell would become familiar to the boy over the years.

"Bed's are full these days. I don't like it." the nurse escorting them along-a ghost who's spirit still walked upon the floors, tending to the sick- said. "Don't like it at all. At least they caught those four who-."

"Not in front of the boy," his grandmother said.. "We can talk about that later."

"Can I see my mum and dad now?" he asked. He was running out of patience. Deep in the back of his mind, he could just barely begin to hear the whispers of his parent's thoughts. Terrible, disjointed things that kept repeating. _Not good._

"Let's get you taken care of first, shall we?" Grandmother said. "You can see them after."

"I'm fine. I want to see them now! I can help!" It had been four hours since the attack on his parents. Four relentless hours he'd been kept away from them.

"Calm down, child. There's nothing you can-"

"I can help! I know they're in pain, I heard them screaming. Where are they? I can help!" he broke away from his grandmother's hand and ran the rest of the way through the ward. Through a double door, he found himself in the private wing. There it was, the third door down. That's where his parents were. The three year old did what no witch or wizard of his age should have been able to do. Without uttering a spell, he opened the lock on the warded door.

~`0\~/0'~

Jethro shook the memory from his mind. It wasn't his. It didn't belong here.

The Doctor was busy doing something with one of the monitor panels. Jethro let him to it. Everyone else in the cabin was giving him their attention. Jethro kept watch of the blond lady. If the light he had seen earlier had been real, then maybe the shadow he'd seen heading for her was real as well.

"Doctor," Jethro called. He had to get the man refocused on what was important. "Look at her."

The Doctor took a moment to break his train of thought before complying, then asked the hostess for a medical kit.

"Why won't she turn around?" Jethro wondered out loud. every one else was trying to assess their situation, trying to figure out their next move... everyone except her. Why? The hostess said her name was Mrs. Sky Silvestry. It was a pretty name.

As the Doctor took over watching Mrs. Silvestry, Jethro turned his attention to other things. Something was missing... The humming? He tried, listening for the familiar noise beneath all the din of conversation, but he couldn't hear it anymore. "That noise, from the outside..."

"What of it?" his mother asked.

"It's stopped." he said. Val was happy about that. Jethro wasn't so sure. He thought about the shadow he'd seen. "But what if it's not outside anymore? What if it's inside?"

"Inside? Where?" Val asked.

Jethro nodded towards Mrs. Silvestry. "It was heading for her."

The Doctor gave Jethro a worried glance, then proceeded more carefully, with the still figure in front of him, "Sky...it's all right, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me."

~`0\~/0'~

Sensation, body, life, Breath, in, out, blood rushing, nerves tingling, sound, sight, smell, touch, gentle touch, movement. All these things it took from the Body. The Body belonged completely to it now. The bug who inhabited the Body before had crumbled so easily under her own fear and loneliness it had refined to perfection.

"Sky?" one of the bugs said.

_Talking, that was talking._ The creature had successfully attuned the minds of it's little bugs to it's own. It heard their thoughts like whispers, understood their meanings, but not the rasping, screeching, squawking sounds they were making which connected to those meanings. The language they spoke was different than any it remembered hearing-when it _had_ hearing... so sooooo long ago.

It could feel Touch on the Body from where the sound came from. It focused on the word and on the mind of the bug who wandered so close to it's aura. Sky was a designation... a name... Sky was the Body's name. Sky meant the beautiful vastness of the heavens above. It liked the name Sky. It would take this designation from the Body as well.

Sky turned to where the sound of it's name had come from, tried to make sense of the blur of form in front of it, so new it was to vision, This form was the shape of it's bugs. Sky turned, found the other bugs, one by one and heard the echo of their thoughts. Unlike the cold things that didn't move, it's bugs fluttered about and rocked back and forth. Curious... they were all curious... A Timelord would be curious. It remembered the face of it's tormentor, knew the Timelord was on board... but none of the faces on board matched it's memory, and none in particular held reverence in any of the minds of the bugs to any one particular being. It didn't even know the name of it's jailer in the language the bugs spoke.

"Sky?" the bug so near said again.

Followed the movement of the bug's muscles, it echoed back the word "Sky?"

"Are you hurt?"

_Concern for well being_. "Are you hurt?"

"You don't have to talk"

Concern for vocalizations may cause self harm... this one could be a nurse of some sort. "You don't have to talk," _but that's exactly what I must do!_

"My name's the Doctor"

Designation accepted "My name's the Doctor." Sky repeated.

"Okay, can you stop?."

The nurse was getting nervous."Okay, can you stop?"

"I'd like you to stop."

Was this the Timelord? _But could such a simple thing as repetition make a Timelord nervous?_ "I'd like you to stop." Timelords were too arrogant to fear for themselves and to aloof to fear for other beings... except their pets.

"Why's she doing that?"

Sky looked at the new noise. _Scientific curiosity_. "Why's she doing that? The bald one had the arrogance of a Timelord

"She's gone mad."

_Pudgy male, thinks he's an Alpha._ "She's gone mad."

"Stop it!"

_Fear - Mother protecting a cub?. _"Stop it"

"I said stop it!"

The mother will be useful "I said stop it"

"My name is Jethro"

Designation accepted. "My name is Jethro" _The cub, a mere boy who wants to play ._

"Jethro, leave it, just shut up!"

_Scolding a child?_ "Jethro, leave it, just shut up!" No, nurse Doctor didn't want boy Jethro to interfere. He didn't think the boy a boy.

Nurse Doctor switched from asking caring questions to asking probing ones.

"The square root of pi is"

"The square root of pi is" _Pi?_ _Mathematical constant for circular mechanics_

"1.77245385090/5516027298167483341..."

"1.77245385090/5516027298167483341..."

"Wow!"

"Wow!" _Why would a nurse need to memorize Pi to so many decimal places?_

All the bugs began squeaking at once. Sky turned to make contact with each of their minds, hearing their thoughts, connecting to the sounds they made, repeating their sounds, just as it whispered their thoughts back to them. Sifting through the thoughts, trying to find he ones that inspired the most fear in it's little bugs, pushing back harder with those.

Slowly, it began to make sense of the words, sense of the faces, learning each of their names and the fears prodding their thoughts. Sky had narrowed the possibilities down:

The arrogant bald one, his assistant who was wiser than she let on. The boy who wasn't a boy. One of them had to be the Timelord. The others were unimportant. It could do with them as it pleased.

All it had to do was push at the weakest point in their minds, coax the dirges of fear awake that lie sleeping in there. The bugs would do the rest. Sky could wait. The Timelord would reveal itself soon enough. Timelords were too clever not to.

~`0\~/0'~

Jethro watched amazed as Mrs. Silvestry repeated every word of the multiple conversations around him-well, she wasn't really Mrs. Silvestry anymore, was she. Buy then, what _was_ she?

"She can repeat anything." Even that comment, apparently. He started shouting out random numbers "5, 10, 16, 35" something less predictable than Pi. He would have chosen Tau himself.

He even tried a number that was supposed to expose demands if you could trick them into saying it. He remembered it from somewhere, probably a game.

"Six six six!*

Mrs. Silvestry repeated the number, not missing a beat as she went on to repeat the next flirt and flutter of words, following faster than before. _Okay, not a demon._

As the conversations rose in pitch around him-

"You're scaring my wife!"

His mother's panic was beginning to worry Jethro-he kept his watch of the Mrs. Silvestry anomaly. Hence he was watching her when the lights went on.

"It's the back-up system" the hostess said. Mrs. Silvestry repeated... no, not repeated. _She said that at the same time._

"Well, that's better" His dad said about the lights. She was synced with his dad as well.

"What about the rescue, how long's it gonna take?" His mum? Mrs SIlvestry was synced with her, too. Not just his dad. She was synced with everyone.

With all the commotion, he wasn't sure the Doctor had noticed. "Doctor..." he cut his words short as he heard them simultaneously uttered from the blond lady."

"I know," the Doctor and Mrs. SIlvestry said together.

The others soon caught on. In the confusion that followed the Doctor was going to regret his mistake of not getting the hostess on his side. He couldn't handle Mrs. Silvestry and this lot at the same time. All he did was undermine her authority. That wasn't how he was supposed to act, he was supposed to be smarter than that. Kinder, some how. Not so Authoritarian. He was supposed to be... ["_There is something about his face, something is wrong about his face!"_] something whispered in the back of his mind. Yes, he'd seen that face before... somewhere impossibly long long ago and very far away. Jethro just couldn't remember where.

"Just make her stop!" Val yelled.

Jethro's breath caught in his throat. His mother was screaming...

~`0\~/0'~

His parents lay in two beds, motionless. So still... so pale... The sound was weaker now than it had been during the attack, but in his mind, he could still hear their screaming. If he could just touch them, he could take away their pain, take the curse into himself. He was stronger than they were, stronger than anyone in the Wizarding world could understand. He could fight the curse off. Easy enough to do for someone of his power. He reached out, almost touching, when someone whirled him around violently.

The man who held him firmly by the shoulders glared at him suspiciously. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"I-I.. Please, their my parents! I have to help them!" He tried to escape but the man's grip was too strong.

"Like hell! No child your age could get through those wards. You're in disguise! Come to finish the job, have you? I will _never_ let that happen!"

"No, no! Please, let me go! Please!" He struggled, but the man's grip was firm.

Instead the man gave him a rough shake. "Who are you!"

He was going to have to cast a spell, he had to get away from this mad man. But just then the door to the room opened again and his grandmother stepped in.

"Mr. Lupin! You let my grandson go this instant!" Grandma Agusta pulled him away from the man, farther from his parents. She hugged him to herself proctively, despite his squirming to break free.

"That's no boy." The man said. "I caught him sneaking in here. Who knows what he would have done to Frank and Alice."

"I wasn't sneeking! I just want to see my mum and dad!"

"He got past the wards." Lupin insisted. "Can your grandson do that?"

"Can your wards hold against a child's pure love for his parents?" Grandma Agusta had him there.

Lupin stared hard into the boy's eyes. "You're sure? This really is the Longbottom boy?"

"I know my own grandson, young man. Pollyjuice Potion can't fool me," Grandma Augsta glared at the man.

Couldn't they argue later? He had to get to his parents, take away the curs, stop them screaming. "Please! I can help them!"

"I implore your forgiveness, madam, I didn't mean to hurt the boy. It's just... with everything going on... It's hard to know what's what these days."

"And I suggest you take more care. The boy''s still weak. He hasn't fully recovered from the trauma of what those four fiends did to my son and daughter-in-law"

"Please, just let me- I can help them!"

Lupin ran his fingers through his hair. "He shouldn't see them like this. Not in the state he's in."

"I agree. It's been too soon." Grandma Agusta said. "Come along, Neville. Let's get you looked over first.. Then we can talk about your mum and dad."

~`0\~/0'~~`0\~/0'~~`0\~/0'~

**A/N I hope the addition of he Harry Potter stuff didn't tank anybody as a negative surprise. I did mention the connection in the first chapter, honest! So I hope you like it and can figure out where it's going. Neville just seemed perfect for a Merlin incarnation. I've got an Idea for that story as well, but I'll take that one up after I get through these two. Ah the things Neville was up to in the background... **

**I did take a couple small liberties with the HP cannon to make things fit. The original cannon has Neville's parents being tortured when he's an infant. I brought it up to when he was three so he could talk and walk during the memory, and I also put him nearby when it was happening so that event would trigger his awakening. Yep, there's more on that memory to come.**

**Oh, yeah, and I need to add the disclaimers**

**I Do Not Own Merlin, Doctor Who, or Harry Potter. Hats off and long bows to the people who do.**


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